Dominion Gives Details On Power Line Plan

Pr. William Supervisor Voices Opposition

Last week Dominion Virginia Power made its pitch for building high-voltage power lines through the county to the Prince William Board of Supervisors. Dominion officials used maps and graphics and answered all the questions from members of the board. Supervisor John T. Stirrup Jr. (R-Gainesville) asked most of the questions and on Tuesday, when the board meets again, he wants it to send a message to the utility about the power lines: Prince William doesn't want them.

The board will vote on a nonbinding proclamation written by Stirrup that outlines his opposition to the plan to string 500,000-volt lines connected by metal towers, estimated at 12 to 15 stories high, across the northwest part of the county.

"I think it is important for the board to take a position on this," Stirrup said. "It is a public policy issue."

Dominion Virginia Power has not settled on a final route for the power lines through the county that will ultimately end at a substation in Loudoun County. But the company outlined several proposals for the route at last week's meeting.

"It looks like the route of a drunken sailor trying to make it back to his ship," said Supervisor W.S. Covington III (R-Brentsville).

The company has had a series of meetings in Northern Virginia in recent months detailing its plan to the public, and for the most part those who attended the informational sessions were fiercely against the power lines.

About a dozen people spoke out against the plan during the supervisors meeting last week. Linda Budreika of Haymarket said that she moved her family to Prince William County to educate her children and to let them live in a beautiful setting.

"Now Dominion Power wants to slice it up like a piece of pie and taint this land forever with metal skyscrapers. This will not happen," she said.

Dominion Virginia Power officials told the board last week that the new power lines are necessary to provide electricity to the rapidly growing population in Northern Virginia. They warned that the region could experience power shortages and rolling blackouts by 2011 if the high power lines are not in place.

"Our reason for being involved in this project is that, if you are at all familiar with Northern Virginia and how much the region has grown and will continue to grow, you know what kind of impact that growth has had on the roads and the highway system," said Chet Wade, a spokesman for Dominion Virginia Power. "Much the same way the highway system has been impacted by this growth so, too, has the power grid."

Wade said that the company would present its plan to the Virginia State Corporation Commission in the spring. He said the commission plans public hearings next year and then will decide whether the power lines should be constructed and the route that would be used.

Stirrup said that he and others believe the real reason the utility wants to build the power lines is to import cheaper power from the Midwest and sell it to markets in New York and New Jersey.

Wade said that theory is not true.

Stirrup said if more power is needed in Northern Virginia, then the utility should look for a way to generate it in the region and use existing lines to transmit it rather than import the electricity from another region.

He said he expected the board to approve his proposal Tuesday. "I would expect that it would pass," he said. "I would be surprised if it wasn't by a unanimous vote."